A fitness craze has recently swept the United States and many other countries. From fat-free potato chips to treadmills, people around the world have become obsessed with weight loss and healthy living. Accordingly, record numbers of new fitness products/exercise equipment have emerged to meet this obsession (including stair climbers, treadmills, recumbent bicycles, ski machines, and the like).
Many pieces of exercise equipment, when used regularly, are very useful for weight loss, for improving cardiovascular stamina, and for strengthening various muscles. However, most exercise equipment suffers from a major drawback: the equipment is boring to use because of its inability to successfully encourage a user (e.g., an exerciser) to continue exercising. As a result, most purchasers of exercise equipment stop using the equipment shortly after purchasing it.
A need therefore exists for a system and a method for making both existing and new exercise equipment more enjoyable by successfully stimulating and encouraging an exerciser to continue exercising. Such a system and a method will significantly improve both existing and new exercise equipment, as well as exercise itself (e.g., by making it more enjoyable).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,868 (the '868 patent) discloses, among other things, a system and method for improving fitness equipment and exercise. This patent is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In one embodiment of the '868 patent, a monitor measures a performance level of an exerciser and outputs a performance level signal to a video game player (e.g., a hand-held video game player such as a Gameboy™ manufactured by Nintendo). The video game player monitors the performance level signal and controls the performance level of a video game character based on the signal. Additional methods and apparatus for encouraging or otherwise regulating exercise would also be desirable.